Earning money on YouTube is a lightbulb moment for a lot of creators. Once you make your first $100, you’ll be hooked. A lot of factors will come into play that will dictate how “easy” it will be to hit the $100,000 mark.
How many YouTube views required to make $100k?
It could be 100 million views (you read that right) or 4.7 million views. Why? Your niche, audience, audience location and other factors determine how much advertisers will pay for the ads that you’re shown.
And for the purpose of this article, we’re going to focus solely on YouTube AdSense earnings.
If you have a loyal following of 10,000 followers and just 10% of them bought a $100 digital product from you, that would push you to the 100k threshold. But if you don’t have any other forms of revenue, you’ll need to rely on RPMs to make six figures.
How YouTube Pays Creators Based on RPM? (Revenue Per Mille)
YouTube pays creators by RPM, which means revenue per mille, or how much you’re paid per 1,000 views. If you see us mention a $4 RPM, this simply means for every 1,000 views, this channel makes $4.
But RPM fluctuate because they’re tied to ad spending, so they naturally go up and down. You can also inflate your revenue per mille with things like channel memberships and super stickers.
Now, let’s look at:
1. Joshua Mayo: Finance Niche ($21.20 RPM)
Joshua is an anomaly, earning over $600,000 in his first year on YouTube. He has multiple income streams, but his AdSense breaks down into:
- $21.20 RPM
- $362.584.88
If you’re in the finance niche and have Joshua’s stats, you’ll earn a $21.20 RPM. Based on this RPM, you would need 4,716,981 views to reach 100k. Breaking this down into more manageable chunks, you’ll need to have:
- 12,923 views per day
- 393,082 views per month
2. Ali Abdaal: Productivity Niche ($5.07 RPM)
Ali is an industry maven, focusing heavily on productivity and earning $4.6 million a year from all revenue sources on his channel. But if you focus on just AdSense, his stats are:
- $5.07 RPM
- $653,299
If you’re wondering how long it took Ali to earn this amount of money, it was all in a single year. He’s making millions per year, but how many views does he need to make 100k? 19,723,865. For this to happen, you would need to have:
- 54,038 views per day
- 1.62 million views per month
Both of these YouTubers are very successful, but let’s see how much you’ll need to earn as a creator in one of the top 8 niches to make $100k.
How Many YouTube Views are Required to Make $100k in Top 8 Niches?
We’re going to outline what the average creator in the top niches on YouTube earns, based on RPM, and how many views they’ll need to hit this financial milestone.
1. Business ($8.07)
Business content is addicting to watch because you can learn the ins and outs of certain industries by watching creators. For sharing their wisdom, these creators earn an average RPM of $8.07.
You’ll need to hit 12,391,573 views to make $100k based on this RPM.
2. Crypto ($7.57)
Finance-related content is not only popular on YouTube – it’s also profitable. Crypto is a hot topic and can easily command RPMs of $7.57 or higher.
At this rate, you would need 13,210,039 views to reach $100K.
3. Fitness ($2.4 – $3)
Fitness channels are great because even though the RPM is a little lower, it’s easier to amass views if you focus on things like workout videos. Why? Because your audience may watch your workout videos multiple times a week. This type of content has great replayability, so the RPM is still pretty great.
To earn $100K in the fitness niche, you’ll need 41,666,667 to 33,333,333 views.
4. Food ($1 – $2)
The food niche is insanely popular on YouTube, but with so much saturation, the RPMs tend to be on the lower end. The upside? Lots of people watch recipe and cooking videos more than once, so it may be easy to rack up the views you need to reach your goal.
With an RPM of $1-$2, you’ll need 100,000,000 to 50,000,000 views.
Focus on creating more niche types of cooking and food content, and you may be able to get a higher RPM.
5. Gaming ($0.50 – $5)
Although gaming is a hugely popular niche on YouTube, it’s heavily saturated with creators. For this reason, RPMs can vary greatly and tend to be on the lower end of the spectrum.
It will take a lot more views overall to generate $100K with this type of channel compared to others. How many more views?
- 200,000,000 – 20,000,000 views
The one advantage of the gaming niche is that it’s pretty easy to get views, and depending on the type of content you’re creating, your viewers may watch some of your videos more than once.
Just look at the views on some of these gaming videos:
- I Beat Garten of Banban 6! – 416K views in just a day
- 10 Great Games You Absolutely Hate at First – 2.3 million views
6. Lifestyle / Fashion ($9.72)
Lifestyle and fashion content are wildly popular on YouTube, and these niches can fetch a decent RPM of $9.72. How much you earn will largely depend on what kind of lifestyle or fashion content you’re creating.
But to hit $100K with an RPM of $9.72, you’ll need 10,288,065 views.
7. Home Improvement ($4.76 – $15.22)
The home improvement niche can have some surprisingly high RPMs. But if you’re unlucky enough to have RPMs on the lower end of the spectrum, you’ll have your work cut out for you if you want to hit $100K.
In this niche and with these averages, you’ll need anywhere between 21,008,403 views and 6,570,302 views to hit your earnings goal.
8. Technology ($9.72)
Technology is still one of the most profitable niches on YouTube. The only drawback? It’s fiercely competitive. Still, this niche offers a high average RPM of $9.72.
To make $100K with a technology channel, you’ll need about 10,288,066 views.
Conclusion
Reaching $100K on YouTube looks different for everyone. Some niches have a higher RPM, so it will be easier to reach your goal with fewer views. Still, if you focus on creating great content and continue to grow your subscribers, you’ll eventually reach your goal of $100K.
